Had a Christmas ale all lined up for the big day tomorrow with stacks of family members. Star anise, cinnamon, nutmeg, much love went into the making.
I chilled it yesterday and put it on the gas. 180 kPa... very odd. I didn't remember carbing it high. Gas levels dropped, chilled overnight.
I tasted today and... well, not much. A strange flavour about it and none of the Christmas spirit. Then it came to me: infection. Another frigging infection, exactly the same taste with no visual signs of anything obvious during fermentation. This one tasted ok out of the fermenter so I'm guessing maybe there was a problem when kegging. 19l on the lawn and lucky I had a backup brew which is a lager free of any obvious problems.
Not a thing has been common between the brews. Anything common has had good brews made before and since. Different kegs, different fermenters, all cleaned the same way, all cubed, some cube hopped. Something in this house is sneaking in somewhere. Bah humbug.